[Peace] significant IVAW announcement

[Barbara kessel]

   Iraq War Resisters to Get Boost From Veterans Group
    By Aaron Glantz
    OneWorld US

    Monday 20 August 2007

    Saint Louis - Members of a leading Iraq war veterans' organization
voted this weekend to launch a campaign encouraging U.S. troops to
refuse to fight.

    The decision was made at the group's annual membership meeting,
held this weekend in Saint Louis, Missouri alongside the annual
convention of the Veterans for Peace organization.

    "Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) decided to make support of
war resisters a major part of what we do," said Garrett Rappenhagen, a
former U.S. Army sniper who served in Iraq from February 2004 to
February 2005.

    "There's a misconception that they're cowards," Rappenhagen said.
"Most war resisters have already gone on a tour in Iraq. They've seen
the war firsthand and have come to the conclusion that it's morally
wrong. This is something we all should support. So to break that
timidness of how we view war resisters in America, IVAW decided to
embrace them."

    To underscore that point, the veterans group elected Staff
Sergeant Camilo Mejia chair of its board of directors. In the winter
of 2003, Mejia was the first soldier to refuse to return to fight in
Iraq after an initial tour in the war zone.

    When Mejia came home on leave after six months in Iraq, he went
AWOL rather than return. Ultimately, he served nine months in prison
after the military denied his demand to be discharged as a
conscientious objector.

    "There's a sort of revolution taking place in the streets," Mejia
said. "It's not being reported by the mainstream media, but we in the
antiwar movement know what's going on. There is a rebellion going on
in the ranks of the military that is not being reported."

    Mejia noted more than 10,000 soldiers have deserted since the Iraq
war began four years ago. According to the Army, the number of
deserters has increased every year of the war. 3,196 active-duty
soldiers deserted the Army last year, compared to 2,543 the year
before.

    Soldiers are also speaking up in other ways. Last October, antiwar
soldiers launched a legal petition to Congress called an Appeal for
Redress, which has garnered more than 2,000 signatures.

    "As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I
respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the
prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from
Iraq," the Appeal says. "Staying in Iraq will not work and is not
worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home."

    Iraq Veterans Against the War has also begun organizing among
active duty soldiers on military bases. Veterans have toured the
country in busses holding barbeques outside the base gates.

    In Watertown, near Fort Drum, New York and close to the Canadian
border, veterans worked with the group Citizen Soldier to found a
soldiers' rights coffeehouse. The coffeehouse, called A Different
Drummer, has become a hub of antiwar organizing.

    Twenty Fort Drum soldiers are now members of Iraq Veterans Against the War

    Historian David Cortright, who protested the Vietnam war from
inside the U.S. military and later authored the book "Soldiers in
Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War," told OneWorld that a
chapter of 20 antiwar soldiers at a U.S. Army base is significant.

    "They are the ones who are courageous enough to speak out but
behind them are many others who sympathize and agree," he said. "They
might support a petition and help out in some way but because of
family matters don't want to put themselves at risk. There's
tremendous pressure from the command to conform, to obey, to keep your
mouth shut. So the fact that there are a couple dozen who are willing
to speak out signifies that there is a base of sympathy and support
and opposition to this war."

    Iraq Veterans Against the War also plans to step up efforts to
undermine military recruiting efforts in the coming year.

    In September, the organization plans to launch a "truth in
recruiting" campaign. The campaign will include antiwar outreach into
high schools and community colleges, protests at recruiting stations,
and efforts to "make friends with a recruiter," whereby a person who
is not interested in military service contacts a recruiter in order to
waste his time and prevent him from encouraging others to join the
ranks.

    At least 3,707 U.S. soldiers have died since the Iraq war began
four years ago. Some 20 percent of soldiers have suffered brain
trauma, spinal injuries or amputations; another 20 percent have
suffered other major injuries such as blindness, partial blindness or
deafness, and serious burns.

    Hundreds of thousands have already submitted disability claims
with the United States Veterans Administration.